At the end I haven´t been able to resist the temptation and here you have some very easy exercises on Halloween, I hope you like it:Sorry! This exercise expired 15 November 2010 and you will have to choose a different one to do :(

The “Leviathan of Parsonstown” was a sixty-foot giant, with an eye more than six feet across. For most of the 19th century it had provided the most magnified view of the sky possible in that era, and attracted astronomers from all over the world to an otherwise sleepy Irish village.

William Parsons, the creator of the “Leviathan” was an individual who was quite different from many of the stereotypical images associated with the men and women who have made great scientific breakthroughs. Although he was a talented mechanic and a diligent student, he was not a prodigy or a genius. He began his university career at Trinity College, Dublin and then went on to earn first-class honors in mathematics at Magdalen College, Oxford in 1822. If anything set him apart from his fellow students, it was not his abilities, but his innate curiosity and love of the learning process. In addition to his scientific pursuits he had a great deal of interest in social questions and was a profound student of political economy.

Parsons’s decision to devote the focus of his attention to astronomy was a deliberate one. No great progress in astronomy had been made since the discoveries of Frederick William Herschel, the great astronomer and telescope builder of the previous century. William Parsons believed that new breakthroughs in astronomy would depend on a man who not only had vision, but also the time and the financial wherewithal to pursue that vision. William Parsons, also known as Lord Oxmantown, was the eldest son of Sir Lawrence Parsons, 2nd Earl of Rosse, a distinguished member of the Irish Parliament and holder of one of the wealthiest estates in Great Britain or Ireland. The wealth and leisure that he was born into would allow William Parsons to put his mechanical skills to the great scientific endeavor of building the world’s largest telescope.

Great scientific endeavors often isolate men of vision from the individuals and the community around them. This was not the case with Parsons. Lord Oxmantown’s curiosity led him to create bonds and friendships, not only with likeminded scientists, but also with people from nearly all walks of life. A story that was often told about Lord Oxmantown during his life was that when he was being given a tour of a large mechanical works in the north of England, the owner of the works stated that he was in great need of a foreman, and hoped that his visitor would accept the position. Lord Oxmantown gave the man his card and gently explained that he was not exactly the man for the job, but that he appreciated the compliment. This interaction led to a pleasant dinner and was the start of a lasting friendship.

Like his intellectual predecessor Herschel, William Parsons had a female companion in his scientific pursuits who was of equal, if not greater ability than her male counterpart. Herschel’s sister Caroline had both acted as his assistant and had independently discovered eight comets, three nebulae and improved formulae regarding the position of stars. William Parsons, Lord Oxmantown, married Mary Field, the daughter of a wealthy estate-owner, in 1836 and without her assistance the “Leviathan” would never have become a reality. Lady Oxmantown was an accomplished blacksmith, an extremely rare skill for an upper-class woman of the time. She constructed most of the iron work used to support the giant telescope, and this project kept more than 500 men employed during the depths of the Great Famine that devastated Ireland from 1845 to 1847. This mother of eleven children was also an innovator in photography. She was one of the first photographers to use wax paper negatives. Many of her photographs serve today as an important chronicle of the building of the “Leviathan”.

Construction of the “Leviathan” had begun in 1842, and by 1847 it was in service. Despite the advancements that Lady Oxmantown and others were making in the field of photography during this period, any observations made with the giant telescope had to be sketched by the observer. News of William Parson’s discovery of the nebula M51 (today known as the Whirlpool Galaxy) and observations of the Crab Nebula spread throughout the British Commonwealth. Many of Parsons’s hand-drawn sketches are amazingly consistent with modern spectroscopic images.

The “Leviathan” was truly a mechanical marvel. Another Irish Member of Parliament, Thomas Langlois Lefroy, is quoted as saying “The planet Jupiter, which through an ordinary glass is no larger than a good star, is seen twice as large as the moon appears to the naked eye . . . But the genius displayed in all the contrivances for wielding this mighty monster even surpasses the design and execution of it. The telescope weighs sixteen tons, and yet (Parsons) raised it single-handed (sic.) off its resting place, and two men with ease raised it to any height.”

At the death of his father, William Parsons was elevated to the title of Third Earl of Rosse. For many years Lord Rosse filled with marked distinction the position of President of the Royal Society, the premiere institution of scientific discovery in Britain and Ireland. Lord Rosse’s home, Birr Castle, hosted monumental exhibitions of optical skill and attracted throngs of visitors from all over the world. Lord Rosse himself was always available to those who sought his assistance and advice, and endeared himself to all with whom he came in contact. On one occasion, when an assistant dropped and broke a mirror on which the great man had spent several hours of personal labor, Lord Rosse shrugged his shoulders and said, “Accidents will happen.”

The “Leviathan” remained the largest telescope in the world until 1914, when a larger one was built in California. By this time the monster telescope was virtually obsolete, and was allowed to fall into disrepair. In the 1970’s a television program, book and lecture by the documentarian Patrick Moore revived interest in this 19th Century marvel. Reconstruction work began in 1996, and as the original plans for the telescope had been lost, the reconstruction team relied heavily on contemporary photographs taken by Lady Rosse. In 1999 a new mirror was installed in the reconstructed telescope, and the “Leviathan” again attracts curious observers from all over the world to this sleepy Irish town.

The widower was in his eightieth year and he lived in large stone mansion with a small number of servants. In his long life in the Mohawk River Valley he had witnessed a great many battles, some carefully orchestrated campaigns and some minor skirmishes or raids. He had never before seen, however, a winter as harsh as the one that had just passed. It was May now, and spring was returning to the valley. The widower and his neighbors knew that the blue skies and warmer temperatures were a mixed blessing, as they would probably be accompanied by an invasion from the Redcoats who were encamped a few days march to the north in Quebec.

The British Governor-General Haldimand had received intelligence reports that the Rebels were forcing men of fighting age to take up arms against the British crown. The Governor was upset by this persecution of Loyalists and began to work with Sir John Johnson to muster a unit to safely escort these men to British-controlled Quebec. Johnson was in full agreement with Haldimand’s sentiment, and also saw the mission as a chance to strike a blow against the rebelling colonists.

The Mohawk River Valley was a Whig stronghold, and the community fully supported the cause of Independence. They had received word that the British were planning a raid, but they didn’t know when and they didn’t know how. The widower, Douw Fonda, volunteered his home as a makeshift fortress, and stakes and pickets were planted around its circumference. Not only was the mansion a formidable structure, but its owner was a patriarch of a family that was respected throughout the region, by Whig, Tory, and Indian alike, and perhaps this respect would temper the actions of the raiding forces.

In the middle of May 1780, Johnson put together a raiding party of 528 whites and Indians. The party made its way south, down Lake Champlain and then marching southwest from Crown Point. As the invaders began to pillage the northern settlements, the alarm was sounded. The young men of the village who would have otherwise protected their farms, homes and families were off fighting the British as part of the Continental Army or militia. Because the settlement had been left defenseless, its residents ran for the protection of the wooded hills, knowing that their homes would be destroyed, but that, perhaps, their lives would be spared. The British and the Mohawks did not pursue the terrified villagers, but those that refused to abandon their property were locked inside their burning homes.

The elderly Douw Fonda, however, refused to flee. When the alarm first sounded he grabbed his gun and turned to the young Scottish girl who was his personal attendant and said, “Penelope, do stay here with me, for I will fight for you with the last drop of my blood!” Penelope Grant did her best to talk him out of this foolish plan, and encouraged him to escape with her to the hills. When she realized that her protestations were to no avail, she knew that if she wished to survive she would have to leave the old man to his fate.

At first the Mohawks intended to spare the Douw mansion and the old man who owned it. Many of them knew Fonda personally, had enjoyed his hospitality in the past, and were aware that he was a close friend of Sir William Johnson, the head of Indian affairs in the northern colonies. The Tories, however, were intent on inflicting as much suffering as possible to this Whig stronghold, and commanded their Mohawk allies to do the same. As the invaders burst through the blockaded front door, the musical clock that stood in the front hall began to play its chimes. On a marble table was a statue of Indian, whose head was on a pivot, which from the slightest motion was “Niding, nodding, and nid, nid, nodding.” The Mohawks believed that the strange music and the nodding statue were signs that the spirits approved of their rampage.

Douw Fonda was relieved of his weapon before he had fired a single shot. He was led from his home, carrying a book and a cane, by an Indian known as “One-Armed Peter,” and then taken to the river and tomahawked and scalped. When Peter was later chastised for this murder, he protested that he believed that Fonda’s fate had already been sealed and that “he might as well get the bounty for the scalp as anyone else.”

Several other villagers were killed that day, and ten dozen barns and homes were burned. Sir John Johnson gathered 143 Loyalists, including women and children, and twenty slaves and made the trek back to Quebec. The Rebels mustered Continentals and militias to pursue Johnson’s party, but the pursuit had to be abandoned due to rumors that the Mohawk chief Joseph Brandt was planning an attack from the south.

Two days after the raid the dogs of several families whose homes had been ravaged and burned, and whose masters had been killed or taken prisoner, gathered on a hill just north of the Slingerland home and began to howl. A howling by a greater number of dogs has never been heard before or since. The unearthly baying began at sunset and continued for several hours as the dogs mourned their lost masters. Eventually, the surviving villagers returned and rebuilt the town that would become known as Fonda, New York.

C.O.Z. Peterson is a centenarian from Florida, US, who was born on 26 June 1902. For her 108th birthday party in 2010, celebrated at the Tabernacle Baptist Church, Peterson was reported to be using a walker to stand and sit, but reportedly uses little support. Recalling how she once beat up a male neighbour almost 100 years earlier, Peterson declares, "I wasn't scared of him".During her life, Peterson was largely called "Sis" or "Sissy" by the members of her family. When a US census worker asked Peterson's father for her name, he told the worker to stick to "C.O.Z.". The name has stuck since. Peterson lives on her own with no full-time care, prepares her own meals, tidies her house on her own, and plants flowers in her backyard garden. Friends occasionally turn up to check on Peterson.Peterson says, "It does no good to moan and groan and say I can't do this or that. I don't like lazy folks. … You've already failed if you think you can't try."Born to a slave father and grandmother from Africa, Peterson lived on a plantation and remembers having to clean their sleeping area with pot ash and stuffing their mattresses with hay in order to sleep.During her childhood, Peterson had a passion for history and geography and wanted to become a lawyer, commenting, "If I had had the money I would have been the best attorney". Peterson, however, was forced to leave school early. Working as a maid and custodian, Peterson names raising four children as one of her greatest accomplishments, though she herself was childless. She watched the civil rights movement several years ago and still has a picture of the Rev. Martin Luther Kinghanging in her dining room. 40 years later, when Barack Obama became President, Peterson remarked that she had seen how the world had finally changed. Peterson names the television as her favourite modern invention.Peterson will attain supercentenarian status on 26 June 2012, at age 110 years, 0 days.

Marie Marthe Augustine Lemaitre Brémont, born Marie Marthe Augustine Mesange, in Noëllet, France, on 25 April 1886, was a French supercentenarian, and the second-oldest on record, between 122-year-old Jeanne Calment of Provence and 114-year-old Eugénie Blanchard of Saint Barthélemy. She became the oldest living person on 2 November 2000 at age 114 years, 191 days following the death of 114-year, 360-day-old British Eva Morris.Brémont's first husband, Constant LeMaitre, was killed in World War I, and Brémont remarried, to Florentin Brémont, who was a taxi driver. He died in 1967. During her life, Brémont worked in a pharmaceutical factory, as a seamstress, and as a nanny. She was hit by a car in 1989 when she was 103, and broke her arm.For her 115th birthday party on 25 April 2001, Brémont donned a red dress, and shared strawberry cake as well as a glass of white wine with her friends at the retirement home. She listened as three girls, born a century after Brémont, sang a song written by nursing home staff. By that time, Brémont's hearing and sight had been reported to have deteriorated; Brémont, however, told the nursing home director after her party that she was "proud to be the doyenne of humanity". Born to a poor rural family, Brémont went to Paris in 1906 at 20 to find work. As she says, "My eyes were wide open. I marvelled at everything. Oh, the Eiffel Tower! In the workshop, with my colleagues, we often talked about a strange invention: the television".Brémont settled in western France, where she lived until 106. She moved into a Cande nursing home in 1992 upon the insistence of her doctor. Brémont initially contested the move, but later confessed, "I'm well cared for here". On 3 January 1999, when 1886-born Jeanne Durmaine died after a 300-day reign as the oldest living Frenchwoman, Brémont became the oldest living French, four months before her 113th birthday. Brémont died on 6 June 2001 at age 115 years, 42 days, ending her 216-day reign as the world's oldest person and her 2-year, 154-day reign as the oldest living Frenchwoman. She was succeeded as the world's oldest person on the day before her death by Maude Farris-Luse, who was born on 21 January 1887 and who herself died the next year. When Brémont died at 2.15am on 6 June, it was 8.15pm on 5 June 2001 when Maude Farris-Luse took the title, meaning she took on the eve of her predecessor's death in her own time zone. Brémont currently ranks as the 25th oldest person on record, behind Farris-Luse.

Stanley Lucas, from Bude, Cornwall, UK, was a male supercentenarian born on 15 January 1900. Lucas was the first supercentenarian ever validated who was born in the year 1900, added to the GRG's Table E of validated living supercentenarians on 4 February 2010. Lucas was 110 years, 20 days old then, and recognised as the third-oldest living male in the world.Validated by Melissa Page, Lucas was born in Morwenstow and moved to Marhamchurch in 1908. Lucas lived there for the next 40 years, until 1948. He then moved with his family to Poughill, where he continued to live after the 1963 death of his wife, Ivy Nancekivell, whom he married in 1926.Having two brothers and two sisters, Lucas left school at 14 and was called up for service during World War I and II. He, however, did not serve for either of them due to a heart condition. During the war, Lucas instead helped on his family farm. He bred Devon cattle and Devon longwool sheep and set up a dairy farm in the 1940s. At 50, Lucas began playing bowls, and did not drop it until he was 100. He was also a member (and vice-chairman) of Bude Town Council from 1959 to 1970. His daughter stated of him, "He has worked hard in his working life and was a teetotaller and non-smoker and since he has been elderly has been well cared for".Lucas became the oldest living European male on 25 July 2009 at 109 following the death of 111-year-old Harry Patch, who had earned the title only a week earlier. He was the first European male under 110 to take the title since 1994, when Emile Fourcade took the title on 26 January following the death of Spanish Pablo Roy Morales, who had taken the title just a week earlier and died at the age of 110 years, 11 days.On 7 June 2010, Lucas entered the list of the top 100 oldest men, excluding disputed cases. He was 110 years, 143 days old at the time.However, on 21 June 2010, Lucas died, at the age of 110 years, 157 days, without ever entering the top 100 oldest men (with disputed cases included), instead coming to rest at 103rd place. He had been Europe's oldest male for 331 days.

The foal was chestnut with black patches, and his owner, Edward Kennedy of County Kildare, hoped that the newborn horse he had named The Tetrarch would bring back the Herod line of thoroughbred champions. As months went by the foal’s black patches turned grey with white splotches, and the young horse did not seem to be living up to the hopes of his owner. The Tetrarch had unusual coloring, an unusual build, and an unorthodox running style. Several horsemen dismissed him before he was discovered by Atty Perrse.

Henry Seymour “Atty” Persse had trained The Tetrarch’s half-sister Nicola and decided to buy the chestnut colt from Kennedy for 1,300 guineas. Over the months The Tetrarch’s long legs, which had first been seen by many as a liability, had become the source of speed that the Irish trainers had never before seen. The famous jockey Stephen Donghue would say, “To be on him was like riding a creature that combined the power of an elephant with the speed of a greyhound.” The horse that had been previously been called “The Rocking Horse” was now referred to as “The Spotted Wonder.”

The Tetrarch’s racing success as a two year old was unprecedented and has never been matched. As a two-year old he won the Maiden Plate at Newmarket, the Woodcote Stakes, the Coventry Stakes, the National Breeders Produce Stakes, the Rous Memorial Stakes, the Champion Breeders Foal Stakes and the Champagne Stakes. He won all seven races in which he was entered. The Tetrarch won six of those races easily, simply blowing away the competition. The only challenge came at the National Breeders Produce Stakes where, despite a mix-up at the start that left him four or five lengths back, he managed to win by a nose. Atty Persse said “I don’t think that he would ever have been beaten, over any distance. He was a freak and there will never be another like him.” After the Champagne Stakes The Tetrarch rapped himself badly on his off-fore fetlock joint, and he spent the winter that spanned 1913 and 1914 recovering. Early in the spring of 1914 he rapped the joint again, and his racing career was over.

The Tetrarch ended his racing career undefeated and began a stud career that was marked by quality rather than quantity. The champion expressed very little interest in mares and only sired 130 foals. To his progeny he transmitted both stamina and speed, although not necessarily at the same time. Out of the 130 foals, 80 were winners, and The Tetrarch was named Champion Sire of 1919. The Tetrarch died at Ballylinch in 1935 at the age of twenty-four.

The Tetrarch was lauded for his greatness during his time, and after his death his legend continued to grow. Although there are questions whether he would have continued to dominate the competition as a three-year-old or over longer distances, the United Kingdom’s National Horseracing Museum called the Tetrarch a “phenomenon” and named him Britain’s two-year-old of the century. The American National Sporting Library’s Thoroughbred Heritage website says he was “probably the greatest two-year-old of all time” and “possibly the greatest runner ever.” He is an ancestor of both Seattle Slew and Secretariat, and countless other legendary thoroughbreds.

Atty Persse was in his early forties, an experienced rider and trainer, when he bought The Tetrarch in 1911. He had been a very successful amateur rider under National Hunt rules and a Master of Foxhounds in Ireland. As a horse trainer he was known as a stern man, and it was said that “woe betide the stable lad who ‘blabbed’ about a horse’s prospects." The fact that he was able to keep a horse’s potential a secret is proven by the fact that The Tetrarch, maybe the greatest runner ever, entered his first race at 5 to 1 odds.

Henry Seymour Persse, the second son of Henry Sadlier Persse, was born at County Rahoon, Ireland, on the 17th of June, 1869. Although he came from a long and distinguished line of equestrians, it was widely thought that he would one day devote his attentions and efforts to running the Persse distillery, which at the time was the largest whiskey manufacturer in the west of Ireland. At the age of 20 he matriculated to Brasenose College, Oxford. After leaving the university, he embarked on a career that would take him to America, where he found success as a cross-country rider, and then to England where his exploits would make him a legendary figure in the history of Irish and British horseracing.

Persse would stay active in the horse racing game until his retirement in 1953, when he was eighty-four years old. He lived until 1960, and is still regarded in Irish and Britsh horseracing circles as an icon of a golden age.

ATTY PERSSE RETIRES (LAMBOURN)

&lt;p&gt;&amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;gt;Your browser does not support iframes.&amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;gt;&lt;/p&gt;

Walter Breuning, born on 21 September 1896, is a rare example of a male supercentenarian. Breuning celebrated his 114th birthday half a month ago, as the world's oldest living male since 18 July 2009, upon the death of Henry Allingham, who was 113 years and 42 days old at death.Born in Melrose, Minnesota, US, to John Breuning and Cora Mae Morehouse, Breuning moved to Minnesota in 1918 when he was 22.Breuning's paternal grandparents lived to their 90s. Breuning had two sisters and two brothers, who reached varying ages; the shortest-lived of them dying at age 78, and the oldest of them becoming a centenarian.In 1901, Breuning's family moved to South Dakota where he schooled until his family broke up in 1910. It was also the year he left school. After this happened, he landed a job at a local bakery, scraping bakery pans for $2.50 a week. Breuning joined the Great Northern Railway in 1913, when he was 17. This was one year below the minimum age limit set by Breuning's employer, James Jerome Hill (1838-1916). Breuning often had to hide from him during his initial years there to prevent being caught. He, again, was paid $2.50 per week.In 1962, after 49 years on the job, Breuning left at 66. He was a manager-secretary for the local Shriner's Club until 1995, when he was 99.During World War I, he called up for military service, but never got in - his "biggest regret".While working as a clerk for the Railway in 1918 in Minnesota, Breuning met Agnes Twokey, a telegraph operator and the two married in 1922. They remained that way until her death in 1957. "She was a good cook," Breuning recalls. He never remarried, stating, "Second marriages never work, even first marriages don't work today". The couple did not have any children during their 35-year marriage.Breuning moved into the Rainbow Retirement and Assisted Living Centre in 1979, when he was 83. He smoked cigars for most of his life, completely quitting in 1999 at 103. Despite this, he is still perfectly healthy. American Fred Hale (1890-2004), who died just 12 days before his 114th birthday, was already on oxygen during the last months of his life.Breuning walks with the help of a wheeled walker, and still has a sharp mind; he remembers his grandfather talking about the American Civil War in 1899, when Breuning was three. He also, interestingly, remembers the day then-American President William McKinley was shot, as the "day I got my first haircut".Breuning takes two meals and an aspirin per day, drinks lots of water, and takes no prescription medicines at all. In winter 2007, when Breuning was 111, he was fitted with hearing aids. A week before his 113th birthday in September 2009, Breuning fell and hurt his scalp, but was otherwise fine.Breuning still exercises, and "keeps his mind busy". He has stated that this would help you "be around for a long time".

Breuning in the 1960s (first row, second from left)

He is also known for his practice of wearing a suit and tie every single day. On 31 August 2010, Breuning gave an interview about his life, by Rainbow Retirement and Assisted Living Centre. This interview can be viewed here. (Readers may also read more about the centre from this site).His 114th birthday in 2010 was a semi-private one, attended by Mayor Brian Schweitzer and a few journalists, who released photos of him during his party.Breuning currently holds a number of impressive records. For one, he is the world's fourth-oldest validated living person, after the death of Florrie Baldwin on 8 May 2010. She was 114 years, 38 days old.He is one of the 75 oldest people ever on record, and the seventh-oldest male ever recorded, fifth if the disputed cases of Mathew Beard and Shigechiyo Izumi are excluded.Validated on 23 September 2006 at age 110 years, 2 days, Breuning is also the oldest undisputed native American male ever recorded in world history, earning the distinctive title on 11 September 2010 at age 113 years, 355 days after surpassing Fred Hale, who had held the title for the past six years. He is one of only five men ever recorded as having reached the age of 114. This makes him (statistically) almost as old as a 117-year-old woman. Only four females have been documented as reaching the age of 117 or more. Breuning, on 30 September 2010, became the oldest person ever recorded to have been born in Minnesota, U.S., succeeding Catherine Hagel from the title. Hagel was 114 years, 8 days old at death. Interestingly, the state recordholder before Hagel was none other than her sister-in-law, Delvina Dahlheimer. Breuning is also one of only three male state recordholders for the US, along with Fred Hale for Maine and 112-year-old Alphaeus Philemon Cole (1876-1988) for New Jersey. Breuning is also one of only two males left who were born in the 1800s, along with 113-year-old Japanese, Jiroemon Kimura.Update: Mr. Walter Breuning passed away on 14 April 2011, aged 114 years, 205 days.

As I hope you know, this is my first year at this school; I’m very happy with the decision I took last June about changing school.I’m writing this to tell you about my summer. It has been a great summer! .I had some time to do all those things that during the school year and because of my classes and all the exams , I found it difficult to do.I spent almost two months with my family (grandmother, grandfather, aunts, uncles, cousins…) in the same house! .It was obviously a very big house located in La Barrosa (Cadiz) , next to the beach , being this one of the best aspect of the house. It was a little bit crazy but I loved it as we don’t have many opportunities during the year for staying all together. All of them live in Madrid and just in special days we can visit them.We tried not to get bored doing differents activities like visiting different beaches, playing some sports or going to the cinema.

With this post by Candela I must finish the series of summer shots, anyway remember that you will get extra marks if you comment regularly, and you are missing many chances.... so please, do the exercises from these shots, come on!!!

This summer has been very enjoyable for me. At first, in June,I was in Seville with my friends. Later, I went to the beachbecause my family has got a house in The Puerto de Santa María(Cadiz) and it is there where we used to spend ours holidays.There, I have got a lot of friends and we did differents activities:we went to the cinema to see The Karate Kid (It is very funny),we played football and tennis, we went out everi night... I stayed in the beach until the fist of August when I had toreturn to Seville becuase I started the training sessions withmy football team, Seviilla Football Club. I went to traineach mornings and the tuesday and the thursday, I tookEnglish classes. With my football team I often played friendlymatches and even we went to play a championship to Nerja (Málaga),in the photo, with others teams like Real Madrid C.F., Málaga andReal Betis. These are my holidays.

Thank you Borja!

And now, are you able to correct the mistakes in red?Come on, send me your corrections! I´m looking forward to them!!!

“There are seventy million Irish, and only one Irish newspaper,” is the somewhat hyperbolic tagline of The Irish Times. Although the paper has a significantly smaller circulation than its main rival, The Irish Independent, the historically controversial Irish Times is commonly considered to be Ireland’s paper of record.

Lawrence Edward Knox was only twenty-two years old when he founded The Irish Times in 1859. He named the paper after both The Times of London and the successful, but short-lived, Irish Times that had existed from1823 to 1825. The paper was originally established as a moderately liberal Protestant paper, but when it changed ownership after Knox’s death less than two decades later, the paper became the voice of Irish Unionism.

Knox, who was born in 1836 at Kemp Town, Brighton, England was the eldest of the five children of Arthur Edward Knox and Jane Parsons. Arthur Knox was a Life Guards (an elite all-officer regiment of the British Army) officer from Castlerea, Co Roscommon, Ireland. Jane Parsons was the daughter of the famous Irish astronomer Lawrence Parsons, the 2nd Earl of Rosse.

Lawrence Knox began a life in the military at the age of sixteen, when he joined the Royal Navy as a midshipman. Two years later, at the start of the Crimean War, he became an ensign in the 63rd Regiment of Foot and was made a lieutenant shortly thereafter. Eventually he became captain of the 11th Regiment, but left the army less than half a year later at the age of twenty.

After leaving military life, the young Lawrence Knox founded the newspaper that would become known as The Irish Times. It was a time of prosperity in the newspaper industry, and The Irish Times was an immediate success. It was originally published only three days a week, but in less than four months it became a daily. Its moderate and balanced coverage of the major issues of the day set it apart from competing papers, and it was a major factor in The Times’s success.

The paper’s readership, revenues and reputation continued to grow for the greater part of the next decade, and it became the nation’s largest paper. Knox, who retained control of the paper, returned to military life, becoming a major in the 2nd Royal Tower Hamlets Militia. He also served as a Justice of the Peace for County Dublin, and then was elected Tory MP for Sligo borough, only to be unseated by petition. He was known as a sportsman, and held the position of Commodore of the Irish Model Yacht Club, a club for racing small boats of 18 feet in length.

Knox was cut down by scarlet fever in the prime of his life, and died in 1873 at the age of thirty-six. After his death the paper he founded was sold to the widow of former MP Sir John Arnott. The headquarters of the paper was moved and its politics became staunchly Unionist. The paper retained its Unionist bent for decades, and critics of The Irish Times still refer to the fact that the paper, along with The Irish Independent and several regional newspaper, called for the execution of the leaders of the failed 1916 Easter Rising insurrection by Irish republicans.

In the 1930s the editors of The Irish Times angered the Catholic Church because the paper strongly opposed General Franco’s Fascists in the Spanish Civil War. During World War II, the Irish DeValera government often censored the paper when it criticized the government’s position of neutrality. Perhaps the most controversial episode in the paper’s history occurred during The Troubles in the late 1960s, when the paper’s chairman, a former British Army officer, called its longest running editor, Douglas Gageby, a “white nigger” for not taking a harder line against the republican cause.

In recent years the paper has suffered from the industry-wide reduction in newspaper readership and now has a daily audience of slightly over 100,000 readers. In an attempt to adapt to this shrinking market, The Irish Times has acquired local newspaper groups and, in 1994, became the first newspaper in Ireland or Britain to establish a presence on the Internet. The paper’s management has also expressed its intention to launch a mobile phone application version of the paper in the near future. The paper’s ownership of the website address, Ireland.com, is symbolic of its continuing role as the nation’s news authority.